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"I swear it is that sales numbers matter when one product is free and the other is sold.. "

Try telling Red Hat and Novell that Linux is free.
Fortune 1000 companies and even small business, don't build their own PC's and download Linux on to it.
They buy servers pre-instaled with commercial software and backed by service agreements.
Those are the servers that run American businesses.
Heck the vast majority of even individuals don't build their own PC's.
Very few people have the time
They have real jobs to do.
They just order a Dell, with the OS already installed.

Try telling Red Hat and Novell that Linux is free.

No need, they already know it.

They don't sell Linux, they sell support packages.

Fortune 1000 companies and even small business, don't build their own PC's and download Linux on to it.

The company CEOs and CIOs don't. But they usually have a department that does just that. It's the same department that buys Dell's, strips off the install Windows and installs the company's own build.

They buy servers pre-instaled with commercial software and backed by service agreements. Sometimes. And sometimes not.

I know at the Fortune 500 company where I spend most of my time, we order servers from Dell, strip off the Windows and install what we need.

Sometimes that's Windows. Sometimes it's RedHat or SuSE. Or it can be Debian Linux, Slackware Linux, FreeBSD or OpenBSD.

I've even watched them install Gentoo Linux and let it compile for a day and a half.

Most big companies have an IT department that does what's needed.

And few of the copies of Linux that we use in our department were paid for. We just downloaded and installed.

It's the same in most large companies. If they have an IT department they get contracts to cover the hardware. They support so many different kinds of software in-house already that another Unix doesn't really matter.

Smaller companies that don't have an IT department are closer to what you are describing. They buy RedHat or SuSE for the support.

Back to trying to prove that Windows is on 95% of the Intel PC's.. what is the point? Didn't you mom ever say.. if all of the kids jumped off of a cliff, would that make it smart?

Surely to goodness you have a better argument than this.

I don't think you have a clue who is using Linux and for what. Or what you might find runs on Linux today.

But I have to say, you can stir the pot. I liked that you brought up ... lol.. I got ahead of myself.. and didn't post something..

...

I'll just handle it here.. Yea.. Linus was just a student. Well, it was a Masters Thesis.. that was the problem, no doctorate.

Frankly, I am a fan of the Mach kernel and one of the operating systems based on it.. but Windows had to be a clone of that work because Dr. Rashid, who didn't write the Mach kernel by himself by any stretch of the imagination.. had to leave that technology at CMU.

Still, I am lost about what this has to do with System security. I am happy to concede that some brilliant people teach at Carnege Mellon and for that Matter, I will concede MIT, Berkeley (arrff) and the Colorado School of Mines. :)